November 15, 2005

Car bomb at Karachi KFC kills 6: police

KARACHI (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least six people
on Tuesday in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in a
attack most likely aimed at a KFC restaurant, police and
ambulance crew said.

A government spokesman said at least four people died and
several were injured, some seriously, but he said information
was still coming in from the scene.

An ambulance crew member for the Edhi Foundation,
Pakistan's largest charity, told Reuters six bodies were taken
to hospital.

The car bomb exploded outside the KFC outlet in downtown
Karachi around 9 a.m. local time (0400 GMT), gutting the
restaurant and shattering the windows of a nearby six-storey
office block housing several oil and gas exploration firms.

"This is an act of terrorism and apparently the KFC was the
target," Manzoor Mughal, chief of investigation for Karachi
police, told Reuters. "Our initial findings were that an
explosive was placed inside a car."

Police said the bomb caused casualties in and outside the
office block. It was not clear if KFC was open at the time of
the blast.

Some banks on the ground floor of the office building also
felt the force of the blast, which blew other cars on the road
to pieces. Tenants of the building include Pakistan Petroleum
Ltd (PPL) PPL.KA.

Another KFC restaurant and a McDonald's outlet came under
attack in September in Karachi. Two bombs exploded within
minutes of each other at the two fast-food franchises, injuring
at least two people, police said.